There are thousands and thousands of early blocks whose generated 50 BTC have not been spent yet. These will be interesting, because there's no way to tell if the wallet has been copied previously. Its value will come from knowing how secure it was previously, especially if it has changed hands.

Are virgin bitcoins (generated but never spent) the equivalent of the "uncirculated" grade assessed a physical coin?

Catherine Eagleton is the Curator of Modern Money at the British Museum.

Just to followup, I had written to her to see if she was aware of Bitcoin. Her response:

Quote

From: CEAGLETONRe: RE: Digital Currency - Bitcoin

Thank you for your email - digital money and future currencies are a particular area of interest for me, and I know a little about Bitcoin. I was interested to learn that there are plans to develop a physical version of it, and would be very keen to get some specimens for the museum's collection, if you might be able to put me in touch with the relevant people?

I don't know if the museum visitors would understand it, but I think a good exhibition piece for Bitcoin would simply be a nice printout of a private key holding a freshly awarded 50 BTC block. I guess one of the "earlier" blocks would be nice, but hey, this is all still pioneering days, so no need to be so picky. The museum would just need to make sure that you can't see all of the private key, otherwise a smart visitor will steal the money from them. =)

I would think it would make a nice exhibition piece for a cryptocurrency. After all, that's what they are all about: numbers! :-)